Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Coronation Street Blog interviews with Sean Ward and Lucy Fallon

After a more complicated journey than usual, Emma, my fellow
blogger, and I arrived at Media City, more than a little excited, it has to be
said, at the prospect of interviewing several actors on the cobbles about the
forthcoming Live Episode.

Corrie producer Stuart Blackburn addressed us all in his usual enthusiastic
way, praising the actors and the writers. We were treated to an edited
recording of the events leading up to the live episode, so we could see how
certain storylines will play out on 23 September. It became clear that the
Platts will take centre stage in the live episode due to their shenanigans with
Callum.

All of the actors interviewed confessed to being nervous as
the episode approached and on August 11, the day of the interviews, not one of
the actors had received a script, so as yet, not one line had been learned.

The common thread amongst all the actors was fear of
addressing their fellow actors by their real names, not their Corrie names.
Viewers of East Enders will recall that that actually did happen in their live
episode. I’m happy to report though, that there was no crowing about this
accident, only understanding and sympathy from the Corrie actors.

I interviewed Sean Ward who plays Callum and Lucy Fallon who
plays Bethany Platt. As we all know, Bethany has, under great pressure from
Gemma and Callum, given Callum an alibi. She has told the police that on the
night that Jason Grimshaw was beaten to a pulp and hospitalised, unconscious,
that she was actually with Callum and Gemma watching films, so therefore the
assault on Jason had nothing to do with Callum. Of course, we know differently.

I asked Sean and Lucy how they felt about the live episode
and though ‘petrified’ they both said they’re looking forward to it and are
confident that when the time comes, they will be ‘on point’. The adrenaline
rush will be like no other and will see them through. It will be both ‘a buzz and
a challenge’ agreed the actors.

Though they have no script as yet, Sean thinks that he and
Lucy are in the first scene of the live episode. Sean revealed that he learns
his lines by writing them out, pretty much like you revise for an exam. It was
amusing to think of bad boy Callum labouring over his lines and to imagine his
neatly filed notebooks with his lines in, in his best handwriting.

Asked why Callum
behaves as he does, Sean Ward said that, ‘Maybe he didn’t get enough hugs off
his mum.’ He added that we will see a vulnerable side to Callum. Sean said he
wanted to create a balance and that if he played Callum ‘just right’ then, like
other soap villains, notably, Richard Hillman, he would go down in history.

Regarding him and Bethany, there never has, in Callum’s eyes,
been a relationship. Bethany has a crush on him, and as he does with most
women, he manipulates her and exploits the fact that she has a crush on him.
Still on the women in his life, I asked him about his relationship with Gemma.
He said that they had always been friends, that it was entirely platonic and
that there is a codependency operating between them. Further down than him in
the food chain, Gemma does his bidding, while simultaneously, there are people
above Callum in the drugs food chain, which will become evident. There is
tremendous pressure on Callum from those in the drug world more senior to him.

Still on the subject of women, Sean was amazed that women
like a bad guy and said all women were crazy. Did women throw themselves at
him? Sean managed that question well and said that he is now a one-woman man so
he ignores ‘all that.’

Callum threatens the Platts that they are to do exactly what
he says, or their lives willbe in
danger. Callum goes on the rampage and smashes up Audrey’s salon and the
Platt’s house. And there will be more.

Sean has been involved in 12 hour days, working with the
fight co-ordinator for over a month to get some good moves in the fights he has
with Tony. He claims too, that both he and the actor who plays Tony are enjoying the choreographed
moves very much, putting together their fights. Sean even suggested that we
might begin to feel a little sorry for Callum as Tony launches further savage
attacks on Callum. Terence Maynard, who plays Tony, and Sean, have had to stagger
home on those days. Nevertheless Sean has found these long working days
thrilling and satisfactory. It is not usual for the character of Callum to be involved
in fights as usually he orders his boys to do his dirty work. While his boys
are at work Callum makes a point of being seen so that no one will accuse him
and that he has witnesses. Clever Callum!

In real life, Sean said that he is often approached,
sometimes jokingly, sometimes not, by people asking him, ‘Got any drugs mate?’
To which Sean replies, ‘No, it’s not real!’

Lucy Fallon was asked about people’s reactions to her character.
She said that reactions were split. Young people thought she was ‘cool’ but older
people were unimpressed by her and think that she is ‘rude and ungrateful’. She
loves being at Coronation Street though and enjoys working with the Platts very
much.

Lucy said that Bethany will grow up after the Callum rampage
and begin to mature. She expressed a wish to have Craig, played by Colson Smith
as her boyfriend, because ‘he is just so nice.’ Nobody can argue with that.

9 comments:

If Bethany does begin to mature, that will be great. Not as great as her and Sarah being written out of the programme, but, at the moment, everything she says and does is either self-serving or mean-spirited, so any change for the better is welcome.

I don't understand why doesn't anyone call the police on Callum?As for Bethany dating Craig,I can't say I like the idea of that pairing as I fear she will manipulate him just as he mother did with Todd and Jason.

To the two anon's I agree as well. I could never understand why Bethany and Sarah were ever brought back in the first place! They have added nothing to the show and I would also like to see the back of them!

For Lucy, I'm one of the older viewers (age creeps up on everyone) and I want to say that I love her character. She really portrays Bethany well in my humble opinion. The best is how she stands up for herself even to Callum. Had he not drugged Sarah, I doubt Bethany would have given in to Callum for an alibi. And yes, like many teenagers she acts petulantly, but this is pretty normal for girls her age. Soaps need drama and she is a good addition.